Power Playing
by TheWhittiePhantom
Summary: When faced with a shady arms dealer who may have more up his sleeve than he's letting on, Oliver calls in Team Flash to help take him down. Little do they know, this man really is more dangerous than any of them thought, and events are about to take a turn for the worst...
1. Intro

A/N: This takes place between the Crossover episodes and The Man in the Yellow Suit/The Climb.

* * *

The last thing Barry remembered was light... A bright, hypnotic blue light...then nothing...

He awoke slowly to a deep voice over his head, gentle, baritone, and familiar. He suddenly realized that he was being shaken, and the movement combined with the sound startled him into wakefulness. He sat up suddenly, blinking until his vision cleared. "Huh, wha-"

"Up and at 'em, Barr," said the voice. Barry looked up and saw that it was Joe. He stretched and rubbed his eyes. Now that he could see that he was in his lab, it was all coming back to him.

Ever since Oliver had pointed out several areas in which he had room for improvement, Barry had taken every opportunity he could find to practice. That meant going out into the field more often, which in turn meant that he was saving more people now than ever before. That also meant, however, that he was almost running on empty. Then, just when he was ready to give it a short break and get some good rest, he was assigned to a new case. It was completely mundane as far as anyone could see, but the urgent need to spend hours in his lab at the precinct-going over evidence and running tests so the police could capture the killer before he hurt anyone else-meant that he had had no time to rest. He must've fallen asleep at his desk at some point, and now here was Joe, probably looking for him after he skipped coming home last night.

"What time is it?" Barry asked with a yawn, gathering up the few papers he had been using as a pillow and pushing them into a neater pile.

"Almost one in the afternoon," Joe replied. He held his phone out to Barry. The scientist looked confused for a moment, but still took the device.

"Hello?"

"Dude, we've been trying to call you for an hour," answered Cisco's voice from the other end of the line.

"Oh, sorry. I was...sleeping. Sorry."

He could practically hear the eyeroll in Cisco's voice. "We're in the Arrow Cave, and the party don't start 'til you walk in, man."

Barry smiled a little. "Alright, give me a few seconds, I'll be right over." He handed Joe back his phone and gathered up the papers he had been working on. He skimmed through them quickly before picking out the results he had gotten on a blood test and handing that to Joe as well. "Can you get this to Captain Singh for me please? They're from the stains we found on the handle of the knife. I've gotta get going."

Joe put his phone back in his pocket and accepted the results. "Sure thing. Go get 'em."

Barry grinned and then was gone, detouring to his closet first to change into something clean.

_THISAINTASCENEITSAGOSHDAMNPAGEBREAK _

Cisco hung up the phone and put it in his pocket. "He's coming."

Oliver did not look very pleased. After trying and failing way too many times to reach Barry through his cell, they had called Joe. Oliver had all but entirely lost his patience a while ago; he expected a very, _very_ good explanation for Barry's tardiness when the speedster finally arrived. Caitlyn and Cisco's expressions seemed more than a little sympathetic, so he assumed that there must be a good one.

Almost a full minute of stiff silence later, Barry came to an ever so graceful half-skidding, half-stumbling halt in the Arrow Cave, a blast of wind announcing his arrival and scattering just about every single paper in the room. "Sorry, sorry, sorry, I know, but I'm here now, so..."

Oliver looked over Barry. "Excuse please?" The kid didn't look too hot... Not as alert as he usually was, leaning just a little too heavily on the stainless steel desktop he had stopped by for his liking.

Barry shrugged and massaged his left shoulder with the same hand. "Uhhh... Sleeping. I know, I know, lame, but I've been busier than usual recently and the overnighter I just tried to pull didn't agree with me."

Oliver heaved a small sigh, but he obviously wasn't as irritated as he could've been had he been given a worse excuse.

Barry cleared his throat awkwardly. "So... Wha'do we got?" he asked, eager to change the subject into something more interesting.

"It's complicated."

* * *

**~MPF**

**A/N: So yeah, that was a really short really boring chapter... Don't worry, I promise the second one is more interesting, and I know because I actually wrote it before I wrote this one. xD And in case you were wondering, that page break is a reference to the song this whole storyline idea was inspired by, so consider that a bit of a teaser because I'm nice/horrendously Evil. ;)**

**-Mumble**

_EHEHEHEH. Sorry. Now I get to torture you about updating instead of the other way around! Oh, I changed your page break. We don't take the Lord's name in vain, Mumble. On another note...I see no armadillos O.O_

_-2whitie_

**And I'll be changing it back because it's not me who's taking it in vain, it's Fall Out Boy. That, and the way you changed it screwed over the perfect syllable count. If it makes it any better, though, I'll censor it (ish). And no, no armadillos yet... GASPE, idea! I hope I'll get to use it later... :D**


	2. Carpe Noctem

**Chapter 1  
**_**Carpe Noctem**_

-Two Days Ago-

It had been a while since Oliver had had the need to wear a nice, pressed suit.

He resituated his tie once again, more to give his hands something to do than to actually fix the accessory. His barely noticeable earpiece had been temporarily traded in for a Bluetooth, something much more conspicuous but more commonplace than his usual alternative. The device felt heavy and strange at his cheek, and he was even more on edge than usual thanks to his lack of bow and feeling of foreboding.

He sighed again. "This was my idea."

"Yup," Felicity said through the Bluetooth. "Don't you forget it."

Both Felicity and Diggle had protested against this plan, but Oliver had insisted. He claimed to have solid facts he was going by, but the truth was that he only had a strong instinct about this one. He wasn't sure how, but he just knew that this guy was different, and almost certainly not in a good way.

So, rather than going in arrows blazing, Oliver was taking an undercover approach to this one.

An arms dealer quietly causing trouble, if the papers were to be believed (because the story hadn't even been televised as far as they knew), a new one that Starling hadn't seen before. It was the "quietly" that Oliver was using as evidence to prove that his paranoia was justified; quietly never bodes well in the grand scheme. Quietly means hiding something, and apparently this one was so quiet that most of his clients hadn't even graced the ranks of the infamous yet. He picked his clients himself, and was otherwise nearly impossible to find as he never set up shop anywhere for any length of time.

No matter, Oliver had a plan. As previously mentioned, he didn't want to go in as the Arrow right off the bat (they had a hard enough time finding him without the man worried about hiding from the Arrow). Instead, Oliver was donning a persona; he amplified those nerves he always felt while an inch from death in a gutter to the point where beads of sweat were forming on his forehead and his eyes were darting every which way. He stuck to the shadows, trying and failing to conceal his identity among them. Like an honor student who was ditching class for the first time. He wasn't the cold, stoic vigilante anymore; he was the perfectly innocent, perhaps slightly traumatized, and extremely desperate Oliver Queen.

There was a small shop in the Glades that had become increasingly popular since its not-so-grand opening a few months ago. And Oliver was on his way to rob it. With his bare hands.

As soon as the store entered his field of view, he paused, watching the windows for any sign of activity. A young man inside seemed to be locking up for the night. Oliver feigned shock at the sight and started forward, hesitating multiple times before darting across the street to the shop, looking around as he went to make sure that nobody was obviously watching him. Seeing no one, he jumped out of the shadows next to the shop and put his foot through the glass door. Most of it shattered, setting off an alarm (which would likely be of low priority to the police, regrettably) and scaring the piss out of the man inside. The man started to dive for the counter, but Oliver ran at and tackled him to the ground before he had the chance and put a hand over his mouth before he could start screaming.

"No guns!" Oliver hissed in the poor man's face. "I just want the money in the register. Then I'll leave, and nobody has to get hurt."

The man nodded quickly and tried to speak, so Oliver removed his hand from his face. "Okay, okay. The key is on a chain-"

Sirens wailing, tires screaming, here came the police. Oliver's eyes widened in panic and he turned to look out the broken door. Two cars came to a screeching halt on the street outside, the flashing lights on them blindingly bright in the black night. How unusually punctual given the crime being committed... The Glades was full of petty crime such as the one Oliver was committing, so they usually had bigger fish to fry. Then again, there was only two of them; not exactly a fleet...

Oliver swore loudly and got up off of the man, running towards the back of the building in search of another exit. Meanwhile, the pair of cops the break in had summoned came in with guns and flashlights out in front of them. The man Oliver had tackled pointed them in the right direction while Oliver was trying and failing to break through the much tougher door in the back. He cursed repeatedly under his breath, still "unable" to get the door open.

Suddenly, there was a click in the handle and the door swung open, nearly dumping Oliver out onto the pavement. He only just managed to keep his balance, looking around with bewilderment. The door had been opened by someone standing in the darkness outside.

"This way, quickly," the figure whispered. It was a man's voice, but even that whisper hadn't sounded at all raspy. Oliver hastily followed him because "what other choice did he have?"

The unusual pair fled quietly down several dark alleyways, making seemingly random turns. They had lost the police, and, after they discovered that nothing had actually been stolen, wouldn't be pursued at all. The man might've seen that it was Oliver who had attacked him, but with no other witnesses, who would believe him other than maybe Lance or Laurel (if the man could even get them to listen)? The most he could be charged for was breaking and entering anyway, and that was if the man even pressed charges in the first place. In other words, it seemed like he was safe, at least for now.

He only caught flashes of his "savior's" appearance in the periodic illuminations of streetlights. He was wearing a knee-length dark coat, slacks, and nice shoes. Oliver thought the man was white, but he couldn't tell what his true skin tone was, nor could he pinpoint the exact color of his hair in the dark. It seemed brown thanks to the poor lighting, but every time they passed by a split second of brightness he thought it turned gold.

They slowed only slightly once they were out of immediate danger, and didn't stop until they came to a small abandoned house. Oliver panted heavily, bending over as if he needed to catch his breath. "Who are you?" he gasped. "Why help me?"

"Just be thankful I did," came the quiet answer, which was more than Oliver had expected. The man got the door open and walked in, leaving Oliver to either follow or flee. Naturally, he chose the former.

There was only one light source in the main room inside the house. Specks of dust that were stirred by the pair's movements were visible in the air around the small lantern which perched on a single, small crate. The man stood next to it, his expression neutral, posture correct, and eyes trained on Oliver like a mildly interested cat. Nothing obscured the man's identity except for the darkness and the fact that Oliver didn't know who he was.

"Wait a second," Barry interrupted in the present day. "You do know who he is _now_, though, right?"

Oliver shook his head. "I'd probably recognize him if I saw him again-or even heard him again-but we don't know his name."

Barry nodded. "I see... Sorry, continue."

-Back to Two Days Ago-

'_Bold,'_ Oliver thought. _'A little too bold. What if one of his clients turned on him?'_

"Oliver Queen," the man said, his melodic voice still so quiet that Oliver shouldn't have been able to hear him as well as he could. "Fancy seeing you here. I knew you fell from those golden heights down to the same level as the rest of us...but what were you hoping to achieve, bursting into that store the way you did?"

Oliver studied the man wearily, seeming unsure of himself. "I dunno. Who says I was trying to do anything?"

The man raised an eyebrow, but otherwise didn't move. Oliver gulped.

"Perhaps you thought of collecting an easy prize?" the man suggested gently. "It can't have been easy to grow accustomed to the gross indignities of a minimum wage job after a career which required nothing of you but presence and influence. Perhaps earning even a small sum without being humiliated was worth the risk for you?"

The assumption was incorrect, but Oliver felt as if it wasn't... Rather than thinking of what the man was literally saying and seeing the inaccuracies, he only saw hidden truth in the man's words; before the island, he really didn't have any pressing responsibilities (well, none he took seriously anyway). Now, after he had been forced to completely abandon that kind of high life and had fully immersed himself in his duties as the Arrow, he was working a thankless job, exposed almost constantly to the lowest of lowlifes, and all he expected and received in exchange for his efforts was the private pride he took in knowing that he had helped at least someone, if only for a little while... It didn't matter that the man was talking about the attempted robbery, because Oliver himself took that extra step and applied the man's words to the real reason behind his staged crime. He still saw the truth in the man's words.

Oliver cast his genuinely disillusioned gaze at the floor. He had never really thought of it like that before... Why would he start now? He looked back up at the man, vaguely aware of how vulnerable he felt and how visible that would be to the seemingly kind, gentle man standing across the room from him.

Oliver was caught off guard, and he didn't realize how suspicious any of this was. All he knew was that this man somehow understood... That was when the man moved the lantern to the side, picked up a small crowbar off of the dusty floorboards, and used it to pop open the crate. He reached in, and pulled out a double-barrel shotgun; it wasn't military grade, not by a long-shot. It could've been used to hunt game, but Oliver, even in his stupor, knew that it wasn't going to be used for anything legal.

The man turned back to Oliver, simply holding the rifle with both hands. Oliver eyed it for a moment before cautiously walking forward. He stopped when he was about three feet away, and the man closed the distance with two steps of his own before holding out the rifle.

An offering which, at the time, seemed almost innocent.

* * *

**A/N: Told you it'd be more interesting. ;) Can't say the same about the next chapter because I haven't finished it yet, but I'm working on it and there should be a dollop of friendship fluff in there somewhere... What can I say, I like Barr and Olly's poofy relationship. They just work so well together and it's awesome! :D**

_The plot thickens...Now I'm frustrated, because now I'm the one in the dark. It kills me to write Flash FF without Oliver, just because they do have such a good bromance. Barry can get away with saying stuff to Oliver that no one else can. It's hilarious. _

_-2whitie_

**Payback. Feel my pain, _feel it._ Well, I guess we can't really complain given that we proofread for each other and therefore get the updates before anyone else... MUAHAHA! And I knoooooow right?! It's so friggin' great! :'D**


	3. Assuming Command

**Chapter 2  
_Assuming Command_  
**

-Present Day-

"Wait, so he didn't charge you for it or anything? He just let you take it?" Barry asked incredulously after Oliver descended into a thoughtful silence. Oliver glanced up at him before retrieving a shotgun from a nearby countertop, cocking it loudly. Barry eyed the gun curiously. "Ohhh, I was wondering where that thing came from."

"He said I'd need more than just my bare hands to do the job right," Oliver paraphrased, setting the gun back down, "and that I could pay him for it later, once I had 'something to show for my efforts.'"

Barry nodded slowly, thinking about what they had been told. Meanwhile, Cisco asked, "Did he say anything else?"

Oliver shook his head. "Not really. I guess he just assumed I knew what to do; he didn't think he really had to say anything."

"So why call us?" Caitlyn asked.

It was Barry who answered that one. "Because this definitely sounds like it could be our kind of thing." When he received confused looks from Caitlyn and Cisco, Barry turned his attention back to Oliver. "It's not like you to drop your guard like that."

"I agree."

"...Did you notice if anyone else was in the house with you?"

Oliver was silent for a moment, shifting his weight. "I didn't check."

Everyone in the room (except Barry, who was still studying him with academic curiosity) turned to stare directly at Oliver in that moment as if he had said that he had killed a kid or something equally horrendous.** "**Seriously? You didn't even look around?" Roy asked aloud incredulously. Oliver just kept his eyes on Barry.

"The way you said he was staring at you is what's really interesting me right now," Barry continued as if all was right with the world. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you two probably didn't break eye contact for the most part. If he is a meta, that could be the way his powers work. Otherwise, it could've just been him making sure that his deductions were right by reading your expression."

"If he is a meta," Cisco said, drawing most of the rooms' attention, "his powers probably have to do with manipulation." The grin on his face implied the "which would be friggin' awesome" that he didn't say out loud.

"That would explain why Oliver was acting so..." Caitlyn added, making a face to finish her sentence.

"Out of character?" Diggle supplied gruffly.

Oliver still looked more sour than usual; he wasn't used to making such elementary mistakes, and certainly wasn't enjoying all of the attention. "So, what? We're dealing with a hypnotist?"

Barry narrowed his eyes thoughtfully and shook his head. "I don't know... We need more information. We've got a pretty good idea of what kind of thing to expect from him for now, but not enough to know for certain what his abilities are let alone how to defeat him."

"Okay then," Oliver responded. He was silent for a moment, nodding his head slowly as if he were going through his options. Finally he clapped once, snapping everyone out of their private thoughts. He then turned to Barry. "What do we do now?"

Barry just stood there idly as if he hadn't heard Oliver. A good five seconds later, he blinked in surprise. "Wait, what?"

Oliver resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "We need a plan, and you have more experience with tracking down and dealing with metahumans than I do. Yes, I realize that I just said metahumans, and yes, I am completely serious."

Barry's mouth dropped open slightly. "Oh. Right... Right, a plan. I..." He glanced around and saw that everyone's eyes were on him. He also realized that his mind had gone completely blank without his permission. "Wow... I was not prepared for this."

"Well if you don't think you can han-"

"Nonononono!" Barry exclaimed, cutting Oliver off. "I've got this." He opened his mouth to speak. "...Uhhh..."

Oliver cleared his throat and shifted, and Barry's thoughts finally came to him. "Well, the first thing my team usually does is run in blind without any clue as to what we're facing to figure out what to expect in the future, but you've kind of already done that, sooo..."

Barry quickly analyzed each of his options, his thoughts visible on his face. "Next, I think we should keep playing along with Oliver's original plan. If this guy is really as elusive as you guys say, then the easiest way to lure him out is to use Oliver as bait which sounds really bad when I say it out loud like that, but what I really mean is that you do what he wants for now. You take the gun he gave you, 'rob' a slightly bigger store than the first one you tried, and that should get his attention again. Except this time, someone from my team goes with you since we know what to look for with metas. Hopefully that will lead to another confrontation with our bad guy, and this one will be even more telling than the first because we're prepared this time."

"But what if he doesn't show up this time?" Roy asked.

Barry bit his lip, trying really hard not to shrug. "That's a chance we have to take. I'm hoping that if he sees that Oliver is serious about this then he'll be more willing to show himself, but again, it's hard to know what he'll do since we still don't know much about him."

Oliver nodded. "We really don't have very many options."

"Exactly."

"So who's going to be my partner in crime?"

"I am," Barry replied almost immediately.

"Wrong," Oliver fired back just as quickly. When Barry gave him a confused and slightly disheartened look, he elaborated. "One of us on the frontline is enough for now. There's so many uncertainties right now that I'm not willing to risk both of us. Plus, if we hold you back until it's time to actually take him on, we'll have the element of surprise because he won't realize that we've got someone like you on our side; he might underestimate us and get cocky."

"...Good point."

Oliver's gazed wandered over all three members of Team Flash before finally settling on just one of them. "So. How would you like to come and break into a small bank with me, Cisco?"

Cisco started to gasp _loudly_ at that, but hastily slapped a hand over his own mouth. He removed it only for a second to reply quickly. "YesIwouldloveto."

"Good." Oliver actually seemed amused. "We should probably do it tonight."

Barry nodded. "I agree. Felicity, if you would find a good place for them to break into? Somewhere a bit bigger than the last place, but not so big that it causes problems."

"A small bank?" Felicity asked, glancing momentarily at Oliver.

"Yeah, actually," Barry replied. "If you can find one, that'd be nice."

"On it."

Barry looked over at Oliver expectantly. "Anything to add?"

Oliver thought for a moment. "Nope. Sounds fine to me."

Barry beamed proudly. "Alright!"

Oliver turned back to Cisco. "Go find yourself a handgun. We keep them in that cabinet over there. Something small, make sure you know how to use it just in case things get too ugly." Cisco nodded and did as Oliver told him to. Meanwhile, Felicity started searching for robbable candidates in the Glades, Roy helped Felicity, Barry zipped away and returned less than a minute later with his Flash outfit which he put on his mannequin that Oliver had added to the base, and Caitlyn made herself useful by picking up the papers that Barry's entrances had disturbed.

Diggle stepped up beside Oliver. "You're gonna have a pretty bad rap sheet after this if you keep this up," he pointed out quietly.

Oliver grimaced slightly. "I know. Thankfully, I have a good lawyer." He left Diggle's side, ending the conversation, and instead turned his attention to Barry. The kid was still slouching slightly, his eyes were still too dull and unfocused for Oliver's liking, and he kept rubbing his shoulder. "What did you to your shoulder?" he asked, grabbing Barry's attention.

"Nothing," Barry answered. "Just slept on it wrong."

Oliver could tell he wasn't lying or skirting the truth; it was always obvious when he was because he was such a horrible liar. "Speaking of sleep, you need to get some more of it. There's a cot right over there," Oliver said, pointing over to the mattress he still had down here.

There was no room in his tone for argument, but Barry still hesitated. Oliver gave him a look that practically shouted, "Get some sleep or I'll knock you out." Barry sighed. "Fine." He trudged over to the cot and flopped down on it, and Oliver's bow stayed on its stand.

"I think I've found somewhere," Felicity called out. Oliver looked over her shoulder at the monitor she had been using.

"Looks good to me."

* * *

**A/N: Well, not as interesting as it could've been, but meh. At least there's quite a bit of plot and a little bit of fluffiness. (It's stone-cold fluff because Oliver tried to shave it off with an arrowhead, but it's still there.) Oh hey, that's probably how Oliver managed to somehow not grow a beard on the island for the first, like, four years! ARROWS CUT THINGS, DUH. I can't believe it's taken me this long to figure that out... Am I the only one who didn't realize this, because HNNNGH I hope not.**

**ANYway, back to the land of bless-ed relevance, I'm like 75% sure that I've got big things in store for the next chapter (no pun intended), so look forward to that. ;) And if the big thing I'm thinking of doesn't happen next chapter, then it'll happen in either the chapter after that or the chapter after that at the latest, so you can still look forward to it. :3**

**P.S. How obvious is it that I totally forgot all about Roy until now? Heheh, whoops... He was here the whole time.**

_Poor Roy. He gets no love. I love crossovers, because then you can explore dynamics you usually can't, like Oliver and Cisco, or Barry and Roy. About the beard thing...there is more than one way to get rid of hair. Remember that story I told you about that debate tournament I was at where one of my teammates set their hair on fore while coach was buying pizza?_

_-2whitie_

**...No. You must tell me this story.**


	4. Ocean's Seven

**Chapter 3  
_Ocean's Seven_**

Barry was snoring quietly all the way up until Oliver finally woke him up at dusk. The nap had definitely done the scientist some good; Oliver was satisfied with the change for the better in his energy level, and he seemed truly ready to focus.

While Barry munched on one of his high-calorie granola bars, Oliver and Cisco went over the layout of the building as well as their plan again. Given the circumstances, they both knew that they'd have to actually steal something this time around. That meant leaving behind as few traces as possible, and that in turn meant carefully planning for as much of the excursion as they could. They weren't trying to hurt anyone, but they both realized that they may have to to keep up appearances. They would be better off if the police didn't show up right on time since it would mean fewer witnesses. Even so, they both still privately hoped that the cops would show up before anything happened just so they'd have an excuse to bail before they had the chance to do any harm.

As it was nearing 8:30, they finally set out, earpieces receiving orders, ski masks on, rifle and handgun on their persons, and the rest of the team watching their backs via security cameras.

Barry was on standby as a last resort just in case serious disaster struck. He was already on edge; he already had on his suit and he refused to sit as he watched the monitor with the others. On one screen Felicity already had the cameras around the Cedar Dollar they were about to rob pulled up. On another, a map tracking Oliver's motorcycle as it carried its tense passengers to their destination.

The trip there was completely silent apart from the rumble of Oliver's bike.

"We're here," Oliver finally murmured as he stashed his bike in an alley about a block away. The pair traveled quietly through the shadows, Cisco looking in every direction he heard a sound, and Oliver's eyes only on the storefront. The lights had only just turned off inside, meaning that someone was still in there. They could've come way past closing time when the store would be empty, but Oliver thought that after his attempt yesterday, him suddenly seeming to grow that many brain cells at once would be a little too suspicious; the ski masks, weapons, and partner were enough of a leap from his last failure by themselves. Cisco didn't argue because he just wanted to get this over with.

Oliver went in first, kicking in the door the same way he had yesterday. Once he was inside, Cisco quickly joined him. Both had their guns raised, but for now, there was no one in sight.

"Where's the alarm?" Barry asked.

Felicity was just as confused as he was. "It's already been disabled."

Oliver decided that it would be better if Cisco didn't have the time to panic about that piece of information. "Where are the drawers?" he asked quickly.

"They were just taken to the back room," Felicity said.

"They'll be locked up in the back by now," Cisco repeated. Oliver had heard Felicity, but they didn't want anyone who may or may not be watching to know that they had a whole team watching their every move.

What Cisco and Oliver didn't know at that moment, however, was that Barry, Felicity, Diggle, Caitlyn, and Roy weren't actually able to watch their every move anymore. The plan had been to wait until the pair had finished the job before tampering with the video evidence of their crime. Now it would seem that they wouldn't have to...

The surveillance feeds were already being looped.

Felicity didn't want to raise suspicion by reversing the selective loop (it only seemed to be affecting the cameras which had eyes on the pair), so they could only hear what was going on. Barry was tempted to run out and watch the pair's progress from the side just in case something happened, but as soon as Diggle read the look on his face he quickly shot that idea down. They had a pretty good idea of who was "helping" them out, but without a clue as to where he was, Barry could unknowingly give himself away and, in doing so, comprise the entire operation. Barry was able to figure out that reason for himself as soon as Diggle stopped him with a firm hand on his arm, so he reluctantly stayed put.

"We don't have visual on you two," Barry instead said to the pair of robbers.

Oliver didn't even blink at the news; just kept going towards where the drawers from the cash registers would be stashed. Cisco, on the other hand, was breathing harder than before and his eyes had widened to the size of plates.

Oliver heard it and glanced back at his partner. "You gonna be alright?" he asked quietly, putting a firm hand on the man's shoulder. Cisco swallowed hard, making a visible effort to steady himself, and nodded.

They continued forward, finally reaching a door at the rear of the store labeled "Employees Only." Oliver motioned for Cisco to stay put and pressed his ear to the door, listening hard for any sounds on the other side. Footsteps... Coming closer. He quickly pressed himself against the wall beside the door and motioned for Cisco to do the same on the other side. Cisco obeyed and they stood there in stiff silence as the footsteps became steadily more audible. Finally, the door opened, blocking Oliver's view. He heard a yelp, a familiar cracking sound, and someone collapsing to the ground.

When Oliver made it around the door that had nearly hit him in the face, Cisco was standing there with both hands up in surrender, the man who had come through the door laying unconscious at his feet. Oliver checked the man's pulse and examined the red mark on his temple before looking back up at Cisco. "Pistol whip?"

"_He saw me, I panicked!"_ Cisco whispered defensively. Oliver merely shook his head and stepped over the unconscious man to get to the small hallway through the doorway. Cisco followed him cautiously as he proceeded down the hallway.

"Which door?" Oliver mused quietly.

"Second on your right," Felicity replied.

Cisco tested the knobs of the two doors to their right. "The first one's unlocked, but this one isn't." Oliver nodded once, and Cisco got to work picking the lock. It wasn't long before he popped the door open and they were able to push inside.

It was a small room full of shelves with various surplus stocks for when the store ran out. In the corner just to the left of the door, however, as Oliver pointed out, there was a dull metal cabinet. Both doors had combination locks on them. Oliver exchanged looks with Cisco; neither of them had prepared for this. (That had been on purpose just like many of their other shortcomings, of course.) Cisco shrugged sheepishly. Oliver rolled his eyes and, without warning, blew the lock up with a quick shot from his rifle. Cisco nearly jumped out of his skin.

The door Oliver had shot slowly started to swing open with a pathetic squeal once its lock was gone. Cisco took a few deep breaths to calm himself as Oliver removed a cloth sack from the inside of his jacket. He tossed the bag to Cisco for him to hold open while Oliver removed one of the register drawers from the cabinet and began shoveling the cash from it into the sack. He worked as quickly as he could, almost ripping several of the bills and allowing some of the coins to fall onto the floor in favor of speed. He emptied all three of the full drawers he found in the half of the cabinet they had busted into and called it good; they needed to hightail it out of there before their luck ran out. Cisco pulled the bag shut and stashed it in his own jacket before following after Oliver who had already started to flee from the scene.

They made it out of the hallway, and then came face to face with the barrel of a gun.

"Wait," Barry said suddenly, "Do you hear that?"

Everyone paused and listened... Singing?

There was a faint melody in the air, coming from the inside of the store as far as anyone could tell. It was so soft that they had hardly noticed it. The rest of the team back at the base exchanged confused looks. How long had that been there? They couldn't understand the words, if there even were any...

"Stand down, sir," they heard Oliver say in an unusually deep voice. "Just let us go, and nobody has to get hurt."

The others-who still couldn't see what was happening, especially since all of the cameras were being looped now instead of just the ones with eyes on Oliver and Cisco-assumed that Oliver must've been talking to the man who Cisco supposedly knocked out. Apparently he had come to, and now he was going to defend himself and the store by any means necessary.

They couldn't make out the man's words; the audio feeds from the security cameras were useless while the footage was being looped and the pair's earpieces weren't strong enough to pick up the voice very well from that distance.

"We weren't trying to hurt you," Oliver replied calmly, "but if you don't stand aside now, that'll have to change."

The singing that they had noticed before was beginning to crescendo. As the words to the disturbingly gentle song became more clear, Barry pressed his earpiece deeper into his ear, his brow furrowed and eyes closed as he focused intently on the song. It was melodic, rendered in a soothingly slow a cappella tone until it might've been a lullaby...

"_And we'll be carrying on, until the day it doesn't matter anymore_...

_Step aside, you forgot what this is for_...

_We fight to live, we live to fight_,

_And tonight, you'll hear my battle cry..."_

The man's voice was raised in anger behind the song, but Barry wasn't paying any attention to it. The others, who were still monitoring the rest of the situation, couldn't make out the man's words anyway.

"Are you stupid?!" came Cisco's voice, trembling but somehow with an edge to it that allowed it to sound threatening at the same time. "We're letting you go, man! Just get out of here!"

"No!" the man shouted, just loud enough for them to make out the words. "You're not leaving here with that cash! The cops a..." He had lowered his voice only slightly, but the singing in the background had crescendo-ed enough to obscure the words.

"_These days have opened up my eyes_,

_And now, I see where the threat lies!"_

The resounding gunshot following those words caused Barry to jump out of his skin, heart pounding, and made everyone else's breaths catch in their throats.

The silence that descended was deafening.

* * *

**A/N: **

**:)**

**-Mumble**


	5. Underground

**Chapter 4  
_Underground_**

Oliver had his best neutral poker face on as he took in the situation, evaluating his options.

Slowly, he made his way over to Cisco, kneeling down next to him. He gently put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it ever so slightly.

"Hey, focus," Oliver murmured gently, not allowing his voice to waver. "I need you to focus."

Cisco blinked a few times and swallowed hard, looking down at his hands as if they were covered in blood. He had dropped the gun just before falling to his knees... He glanced over at it then quickly away. Oliver noticed and picked the small but devastating weapon up. He put it away in his jacket, out of sight and as out of mind as it could be.

Oliver snapped his fingers a few times in front of Cisco's face. "Snap out of it. Look at me," he said, quiet but firm. "Look at me."

The younger man pulled his gaze up off of the floor and away the scene before them and instead focused on Oliver's eyes, gentle, calm, and focused steadily back at him through the holes in the ski mask obscuring the rest of the man's identity. "I-"

Oliver shushed him gently. "I know. Come on." He gently coaxed Cisco to his feet, his arm looped around his shoulders for support. He didn't wait for Cisco to steady himself before setting off at a brisk pace for the door, going through their actions in his head to make sure they weren't leaving behind any clues. The guns would have to be disposed of thanks to the bullets at the scene, but other than that, he couldn't think of any traces they may have left behind.

"You're all clear," Diggle confirmed, almost as if he had read Oliver's mind.

Cisco almost came to a frozen halt, but Oliver forced him to continue forward by practically dragging him away. "H-He's dead..."

Oliver had refused to spare the body a second glance as he pulled Cisco to safety. He'd seen murder before, the same blood pooling around someone who would remain nameless until the police identified them and made their family see the truth. He didn't need to see any more; his only concern in that moment was Cisco.

There was only silence from their earpieces as Oliver mounted his motorcycle, gently encouraging Cisco to do the same behind him. It was as if the kid was in a trance, just stumbling around, mutely following orders. Oliver was almost worried that he might fall off the bike, but that worry vanished when he felt how hard Cisco was hugging on to him.

He started up the cycle, pulled up the kickstand with his foot, and set off back home just as he started hearing sirens in the distance.

_THISAIN'TASCENEIT'SAGOSHDAMNPAGEBREAK_

Everyone back in the Arrow Cave had figured out what had probably happened, but none of them wanted to be the one to confirm any suspicions they had. They merely sat there in a stiff, tense silence, unaware of the passage of time.

Finally, Oliver walked down the stairs and into the base. Cisco was following close behind, his head down and his hands in his pockets. Everyone looked up at the sound of their footsteps. They both seemed to be in one piece, but Oliver's downcast expression and Cisco's demeanor only proved to them that their suspicions were true.

Barry and Caitlyn stood and rushed forward as soon as they saw their friends, waiting anxiously at the bottom of the stairs. Oliver ignored them and headed straight for Felicity. Cisco paused for a moment then hesitantly continued forward, refusing to meet their eyes. The other two didn't say anything, but as soon as he was within reach, they were there with comforting hands that Cisco refused to respond to.

"I killed him," he murmured, his voice broken and his shoulders trembling. The sound of it broke their hearts.

"It wasn't your fault at all," Barry said gently.

Cisco had squeezed his eyes shut as Caitlyn spoke, but now he opened them and looked up slightly at Barry with angry disbelief written all over his face. Caitlyn hugged his shoulders when she saw how pink and wet his eyes were, as if he had cried on the way back to the base.

Barry continued, "Cisco, it really wasn't your fault. We are dealing with a hypnotist of some kind. Apparently he manipulates people verbally, and that's exactly what he did to you. You didn't have any control over what you were doing."

The anger was slowly slipping away from Cisco's expression, leaving only weary confusion in its wake. Barry offered him a small, sympathetic smile before he continued. "I've been thinking about that song, and how you and Oliver were behaving when it was being sung. Oliver was being all calm and stoic like he usually is, but you were on edge. You were terrified. I think that our meta used that against you."

"He used my emotions against me," Cisco repeated quietly for his own benefit. It was hard to tell whether he thought that the news was comforting or not.

"Yeah," Barry confirmed. "Just like he did to Oliver the first time they met; he got to him by making a connection to his traumatic backstory." Oliver heaved and unamused sigh in the background. "With you, he just played on your nerves and survival instinct, I'm guessing. But it's more than that!" he suddenly exclaimed, turning from the others as he had a mild epiphany. "He wasn't just calm, he was almost entirely detached from the situation! That might be it; it's not just your emotions, maybe it's your emotional attachment! He plays on that with a few carefully chosen words."

"So it wasn't my fault..." He still didn't seem very comforted.

"Exactly." Barry jogged over to the computer, leaning around Felicity to get to the keyboard. She moved for him as he began typing. "The song he was singing...apparently iiiit's...Frontline by Pillar." He pulled up a page of lyrics for the song and read aloud; "'Everybody with your fists raised high, let me hear your battle cry tonight, stand aside or step aside, we're on the frontline.'

"And here's the part we heard the meta sing; 'And we'll be carrying on until the day it doesn't matter anymore, step aside you forgot what this is for, we fight to live, we live to fight, and tonight you'll hear my battle cry. We live our lives on the frontlines, we're not afraid of the fast times, these days I've opened up my eyes, and now I see where the threat lies...'"

"And that last part is when Cisco shot the man?" asked Oliver, who had been reading over Barry's shoulder.

Barry paused, giving Oliver a confused look. "Didn't you guys hear it?"

"Yes," Cisco answered, walking towards them finally with Caitlyn at his side. "It was like I could hear it and knew what it was saying, but it was almost too clear, you know? Like, even over everything else that was going on, I could still hear it really well."

"I was too busy trying to deal with the cashier to really pay attention, apparently," Oliver reluctantly admitted. He really hated how incompetent he was being recently... The sooner they handled this mentalist, the better.

Barry hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe he was still affecting you a little, too, but just not as much as Cisco... The lyrics do say 'we,' not 'you' or 'I.'" He nodded at the monitor which was still displaying the lyrics to the song.

"You're still giving us a lot of maybes, Barry," Roy pointed out.

"Do we know enough to try and get him yet, or do we need keep playing his game and try to find out more?" asked Oliver.

All eyes were on Barry once again. "Well... We don't know the full extent of his abilities yet, but even though that can be a dangerous situation, it's not unmanageable; in fact, it's something my team has to deal with all the time," he thought aloud. "We don't know his real weakness for sure, either, but we do know how to find him and it seems reasonable that as long as we can't hear him, then he can't whammy us."

"So what's the plan?"

"We shouldn't go in full force yet, and we don't want him to stop trusting Oliver just in case our first try to catch him goes south, so I say we use Oliver as bait again, but this time, Roy, Diggle and I will follow and try to catch him off to the side. Say he got on our bad side, so now we're hunting him down by using Oliver without him knowing."

"Smart," Oliver remarked.

"If we wanted to go a step further, then maybe we could even have Barry dress up in Oliver's suit to make sure the meta suspects Oliver even less?" Roy suggested. "I'm basically a sidekick. If I show up as Arsenal without Green Arrow, then he might get to wondering where the Arrow is, and that could make him question Oliver."

"But what if he catches the hood on fire?!" Felicity interjected suddenly, nearly jumping to her feet.

Barry, who had been struggling to contain the fangasm he had been having because of the mere thought of him wearing Oliver's hood, deflated visibly at Felicity's point. "She's right; I don't seem to have much control over that. Sometimes I can run all the way across town without even smoking, and other times I burst into flames after just a mile."

Oliver narrowed his eyes. "I'll get you a replica of the hood to wear. The rest I'm okay with risking."

"Wait, we're actually gonna have me pose as the Arrow?"

"Yes," Oliver verified. "It's a smart precaution." Roy smirked slightly at that.

"Barry," Cisco said quietly, "if you can run and grab a few sets of your spare earpieces, then I can modify them to block out sounds better. Should help you guys avoid getting hypnotized."

"Thanks bud," Barry replied. He turned to the others. "If nobody has anything to add...?"

Nobody spoke up, and Oliver shook his head after a moment of thought. And with that, Barry zipped away for a quick trip to Central City.

_Time to get this dark poet..._

* * *

**A/N:**

**Pobre Ciscito... I'm so mean. And I officially am at the spot where I have no idea what's gonna happen next! So that should be fun... Before I at least had _some_ idea, but now my original point B is in the foggy distance and my original point A bit the dust a looong time ago, so... Yeah. Hopefully the meta will develop a mind of his own to help me out some. Fingers crossed! $10 says he does something horrible.**

**-Mumble**

_I agree. Poor Cisco. He never gets a break, does he? On the show and in fanfic. Plus, I dig the idea of Barry in Olivers suit. Bad guys are just going to have to get used to happy little squeals coming out from under the hood. _

_-2whitite_


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